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Jeff Tedford wanted athleticism and speed and got both in his first recruiting class as Cal’s head football coach. 

At a Wednesday press conference announcing his recruits, Tedford presented 19 recruits – 11 on the offensive side of the ball and eight on defense. He had a late start to recruiting due to his December hiring, but Tedford praised the holdover coaches, particularly Ron Gould, for handling matters until he was situated in Berkeley. 

“Without a doubt, you’d like to go through a whole recruiting process,” Tedford said. “But ... I feel very fortunate that the staff that we have did an excellent job making up for that lost time.” 

Tedford said that about nine of the recruits were already committed to Cal before he came aboard, and they stayed with their commitments thanks in large part to Gould. 

“Coach Gould did an excellent job of keeping this thing afloat while the transition was being made. He has a lot of key recruits who he worked hard on and never wavered on,” Tedford said. 

Tedford particularly wanted to improve the receiving corps and the secondary, and stayed local to shore up one of those areas. He pointed to McClymonds High (Richmond) wide receiver David Gray as the big star among his offensive recruits. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound player, rated the No. 5 wide receiver in the West and No. 25 nationally by Student Sports magazine, caught 23 balls for 710 yards, 10 touchdowns and a 30.9 yards-per-catch average in his final season at McClymonds. 

“I’m very, very happy about David Gray, that he’s staying in town,” Tedford said. “He’s a big-play receiver that is going to be a great addition to our program. David Gray is not your burner, but he’s fast enough. He will just get faster. He’s a big body guy, big play receiver with tremendous range. He’s a Terrell Owens type of receiver.” 

The Bears signed three other Bay Area recruits on Wednesday, including one that could carry on a Cal tradition: huge offensive tackles from Bishop O’Dowd High. Michael Gray, a 6-foot-6, 285-pound tackle, follows in the footsteps of Tarik Glenn and Langston Walker from the Oakland school to Cal. The Bears also signed De La Salle linebacker Andy Brining and San Francisco City College transfer Jonathon Makkonen, a wide receiver. 

Tedford followed through on his promise to concentrate on recruiting California first, with 18 of the 19 signees from inside the state. The only out-of-state recruit is quarterback Steven Levy, the Bergen Record’s North New Jersey Player of the Year from Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. Tedford said that Levy has everything he looks for in a quarterback – such as athletic ability, intelligence and arm strength – but added that Levy won’t play much if at all in the upcoming season, since he’ll be a true freshman and has senior-to-be Kyle Boller ahead of him. 

Tim Mixon, Donnie McCleskey, David Beverly, Wale Forrester and Nick Banks are all speedy cornerbacks who should help a Cal secondary that was exploited often in the 2001 season. Banks, Beverly and Mixon, along with recruit Randy Bundy, a wide receiver, are also potential return men for the Golden Bears. 

Tedford has two scholarships to fill and may fill them by Thursday. He might be saving one for Marcus O’Keith, a star running back from Narbonne High School in Harbor City, Calif., whose sister, LaTasha, plays for the Cal women’s basketball team. O’Keith gave a soft verbal commitment to the Bears last month, but is still choosing between Cal and Washington. Tedford could not comment on O’Keith at the press conference, though a video tape showing the assembled media footage of his recruits mistakenly included footage of O’Keith.